20200120
A
DISCERNING OBEDIENCE
20 January,
2020, Monday, 2nd Week in Ordinary Time
Readings at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: Green.
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First reading
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1 Samuel 15:16-23 ©
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Saul disobeys the Lord and the Lord rejects him
Samuel said to
Saul, ‘Stop! Let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night.’ Saul said,
‘Tell me.’ Samuel continued, ‘Small as you may be in your own eyes, are you not
head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord has anointed you king over Israel. The
Lord sent you on a mission and said to you, “Go, put these sinners, the
Amalekites, under the ban and make war on them until they are exterminated.”
Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you fall on the booty
and do what is displeasing to the Lord?’ Saul replied to Samuel, ‘But I did
obey the voice of the Lord. I went on the mission which the Lord gave me; I
brought back Agag king of the Amalekites; I put the Amalekites under the ban.
From the booty the people took the best sheep and oxen of what was under the
ban to sacrifice them to the Lord your God in Gilgal.’ But Samuel replied:
‘Is
the pleasure of the Lord in holocausts and sacrifices
or in
obedience to the voice of the Lord?
Yes,
obedience is better than sacrifice,
submissiveness
better than the fat of rams.
Rebellion
is a sin of sorcery,
presumption
a crime of teraphim.
‘Since you have
rejected the word of the Lord, he has rejected you as king.’
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Responsorial
Psalm
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Psalm 49(50):8-9,16-17,21,23 ©
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I
will show God’s salvation to the upright.
‘I
find no fault with your sacrifices,
your
offerings are always before me.
I do
not ask more bullocks from your farms,
nor
goats from among your herds.
I
will show God’s salvation to the upright.
‘But
how can you recite my commandments
and
take my covenant on your lips,
you
who despise my law
and
throw my words to the winds,
I
will show God’s salvation to the upright.
‘You
do this, and should I keep silence?
Do
you think that I am like you?
A
sacrifice of thanksgiving honours me
and
I will show God’s salvation to the upright.’
I
will show God’s salvation to the upright.
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Gospel
Acclamation
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cf.1Th2:13
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Alleluia,
alleluia!
Accept
God’s message for what it really is:
God’s
message, and not some human thinking.
Alleluia!
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Or:
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Heb4:12
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Alleluia,
alleluia!
The
word of God is something alive and active:
it
can judge secret emotions and thoughts.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Mark 2:18-22 ©
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'Why do your disciples not fast?'
One day when
John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting, some people came to Jesus and
said to him, ‘Why is it that John’s disciples and the disciples of the
Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not?’ Jesus replied, ‘Surely the
bridegroom’s attendants would never think of fasting while the bridegroom is
still with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they could not
think of fasting. But the time will come for the bridegroom to be taken away
from them, and then, on that day, they will fast. No one sews a piece of
unshrunken cloth on an old cloak; if he does, the patch pulls away from it, the
new from the old, and the tear gets worse. And nobody puts new wine into old
wineskins; if he does, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost and
the skins too. No! New wine, fresh skins!’
A DISCERNING
OBEDIENCE
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ 1 Sam 15:16-23; Ps 50:8-9, 16-17, 21, 23; Mk 2:18-22 ]
Obedience today is a
rare virtue, even in priestly and religious life. This is because we are all brought up in a
world of relativism and individualism. With education and exposure to
diverse views from the mass media, we are so filled with information that we
are confused as to what is true or false. Cumbered with a lack of faith
in God, we tend to do things our way, which we believe is the best and the
right thing to do. So those in authority can no longer command
those under their charge to obey because they think they know better than their
superiors. They are unconvinced of the arguments put forward as they have
a mind of their own. Disobedience ultimately is the sin of pride. It
leads to rebellion and presumption which Samuel puts it as a sin of sorcery and
a crime of teraphim. It is the worship of idols, of which the human
person is the greatest idol today.
Indeed, this was the
case of Saul in today’s first reading.
We can easily identify with him in this incident. Perhaps we, too, would
have acted the same way he did if we were in his position. He followed
God’s command to wipe out the Amalekites who were disobedient to God. But
for the booty which was supposed to have been destroyed as well, Saul did
not. Instead, he kept them and “from the booty the people took the best
sheep and oxen of what was under the ban to sacrifice them to the Lord your God
in Gilgal.”
Saul sinned on two
counts. Firstly, he did not take the Word of God seriously. He did obey God insofar as he
was agreeable with what the Lord commanded. He was selective in rendering
obedience to God. It was not a complete obedience. This is what
many of us do as well. We pick and choose those texts of the bible that
we feel comfortable with and reject those texts of scriptures that contradict
our lifestyle. When we do that, it shows that we do not believe in the
authority of the Word of God. Like the devil, we cite the scripture for our
purpose. We are not docile to the Word of God. We just want things
our way.
Secondly, he was
presumptuous. This sin is the
offspring of the capital sin of pride. We think we know better than
others. In this case, Saul presumed he knew what God wanted. Even
if it was not motivated by greed to keep the booty for himself, but to offer
sacrifice to the Lord, he had no regard for what the Lord truly wanted.
As Samuel remarked, “obedience is better than sacrifice, submissiveness better
than the fat of rams.” Indeed, when we want to do something good for a
person, as in buying a person a gift, very often, we give a person not
something that he wants or likes but something that we think the person should
like as much as we like it. Isn’t that presumptuous on our part to think
that others should like something just because we think it is nice, beautiful
or useful? Wouldn’t it be better that we give something to the person
that he or she really wants or needs?
Thirdly, disobedience
and presumption leads to false compromises. Saul compromised the command of God by
just destroying the enemies but not the booty. He justified himself by
saying that he had taken the best to sacrifice to the Lord. But in truth,
it was to enrich himself with the plundered goods from his enemies. His
intention to sacrifice to the Lord was not pure. Again, this is often the
case for those who read the bible and find the commands of the Lord difficult
to fulfill. We seek to compromise the texts so that we feel less guilty.
Today, there are many Christians who use the same scripture texts or just
ignore them to justify divorce, same-sex union, killing of unborn babies and
termination of life. The danger is that once we compromise on the
fundamental truths, we will be led to make other compromises. So much so,
the Word of God is no longer kept whole and entire but adapted to our needs and
interests so that we can find acceptance in the world today.
What are the
implications of one who is disobedient? Firstly, it means the person is
not imbued with the Word of God. He does not know the mind and heart of
God. That
explains why Saul was presumptuous in making his own decision. The Lord
said, “‘I find no fault with your sacrifices, your offerings are always before
me. I do not ask more bullocks from your farms, nor goats from among
your herds.” Saul was listening to himself and to his desires, not
to the Word of God. He did not know God enough to render to Him what He
desired most, not our sacrifices, but our obedience to His holy will. What
makes God most happy is not what we can offer to Him because He does not need
our sacrifices. But He is most happy when we walk in His way and find
peace and happiness.
Secondly, since Saul
could not obey, he also could not lead. This was the indictment of Samuel. “Since
you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has rejected you as
king.” Indeed, how could God allow Saul to deputize Him when he
acted on his own as if he had sole authority? He forgot that he was the
Lord’s Anointed and His representative. He could not do what he liked but
to carry out the bidding of the Lord. The truth is that those in
authority often forget that their authority is a delegated authority.
Therefore, they must act accordingly, not according to their whims and fancies.
If those in authority do not listen to higher authority, then they have lost
the authority to command as well. Why should their subordinates listen to
them if they cannot listen to their superiors? This is the hypocrisy of
leaders who adopt double standards when it comes to obedience. They want
those under their charge to obey them but they will not obey their own
superiors, not even God! This was what the Lord said Saul, “But how can
you recite my commandments and take my covenant on your lips, you who despise
my law and throw my words to the winds. You do this, and should I
keep silence?”
However, obedience does
not mean blind obedience. A
rigid obedience to the rules might even go against the spirit of obedience.
It is more important to be obedient not just to the letter of the law but the
spirit of the law. A case in point was the question of fasting. “Some
people came and said to Jesus, ‘Why is it that John’s disciples and the
disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not?'” Fasting was
one of the important pillars of spiritual life. But there was a danger
that one can observe fasting merely as a kind of discipline but does not
promote real spiritual growth, which is to identify with the love and
compassion of God in His suffering. Hence, the reply of Jesus was
clear. “As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they could not
think of fasting. But the time will come for the bridegroom to be taken away
from them, and then, on that day, they will fast.”
So it is not enough simply
to obey the Word of God without taking into consideration the contextual
situation. There must be
consistency in the way the rules are applied. He said, “No one sews a
piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak; if he does, the patch pulls away
from it, the new from the old, and the tear gets worse. And nobody puts new
wine into old wineskins; if he does, the wine will burst the skins, and the
wine is lost and the skins too. No! New wine, fresh skins!” Hence, when
applying the fundamental principles of the scriptures, we must also consider
how these principles are to be applied intelligently in today’s
situation. The principle of coherency remains. External circumstances can
change but the foundational principles of life as taught in scripture and tradition
remain constant. Truth can develop in terms of organic growth but it
cannot devolve into something else that is completely different. It
cannot be something that once was true and now it is not.
This is where the
challenge lies in the work of discernment in the Spirit. How discerning are we in seeking the truth
and in doing His will? Do we seek to justify ourselves as Saul did when
he went against the command of God? Today, we are asked to remain
faithful to the Word of God even as we meet new challenges that come from
science and technology, situations we never had before. This is where we
need to reflect seriously whether science and technology is used in such a way
that promotes life, respect for the dignity of every human person, authentic
and inclusive love, humble service especially to those who are in need.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All
Rights Reserved
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